


Blue Suede Shoes

by RedWritingHood



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Past Relationship(s), Past Steph/Tim, Some feels, dresses and leggings and blouses oh my, humor and the tiniest bit of angst, super tiny I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-19 02:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14864576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedWritingHood/pseuds/RedWritingHood
Summary: This is how Stephanie finds him later, wearing that eggshell blue dress and a pair of emerald green cotton leggings, sitting on the couch, eating chocolate ice cream out of the carton and watching a documentary about underwater volcanoes.





	Blue Suede Shoes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MildlyRebelliousMint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MildlyRebelliousMint/gifts).



> Title from Elvis Presley's song of the same name, of course.
> 
> This is for Minty, who gave me the prompt I needed to start writing again. I hope you like it and that you're super proud of me. I know I am.
> 
> Prompt: 'Oh, hey. There was this one comic where Tim disguised himself as a woman and he treated it like it was demeaning? Maybe you can write something where he decides skirts are actually really comfy and kind of gets over? Idk maybe that idea is too half-baked'
> 
> It wasn't half-baked, Minty. Not at all.

Tim is going through his closet, searching for old clothes to donate when he comes across a familiar pile in the back. A couple dresses, some blouses, pants and leggings, and shoes, too. A pair of heels, some flats and slippers. Tim stares for a moment.

When Tim went undercover as med student Caroline Hill, he had deliberately chosen outfits that were comfortable and cute, but he hadn't expected to actually feel nice in them. He had, though. They'd been a change, but not a bad one. He probably still has the makeup, too, left in a box, he recalls, in his dresser drawer. Lip balm and nail polish and eye-shadow.

Most of it hadn't been needed, it turned out. Tim hadn't stayed long enough to really hang out with anyone outside of work and the primary outfit of choice there had been a coat and scrubs.

He'd forgotten all of this with everything that had happened last year, losing Bruce and then losing Robin and then finding clues, searching for Bruce, dealing with Ra's and Damian, desperate, thinking he could be crazy but it didn't matter, because if he was _right_...

Yeah. He hadn't exactly had the time ( _or the pain tolerance_ ) to reminisce about simpler times. Of course, before he became Robin, he wouldn't have called them simple. But they were.

Tim brushes his fingers over the soft fabric of an eggshell blue dress, also known as robin egg blue. Admittedly, the color may have been part of why he bought it. It's not likely he'll have another mission that will require these clothes, so he could donate them... _after he tries them on_ , he decides, remembering how not-bad it was to pick them out in the first place.

This is how Stephanie finds him later, wearing that eggshell blue dress and a pair of emerald green cotton leggings, sitting on the couch, eating chocolate ice cream out of the carton and watching a documentary about underwater volcanoes.

"Hey, Timmers--" Steph says, climbing in through the window. She pauses.

Tim stares at her.

She stares back. "Uh. Whose are those?"

"...Mine."

"...Ookay...Is this, like...a thing? Are you undercover, or..."

"...No. I'm just..." Tim struggles to think of an explanation, but the only real answer he has is 'I felt like it.' "...Sitting. Here."

"...Right. You are. Sitting there." Steph pauses again, awkwardly.

 _This was a mistake_ , Tim thinks.

Then she says, "Alright, then. Do you have any more of that?" She points to his ice cream.

"Yeah?"

"Great. Scooch over." Steph walks past him to the kitchen and he hears her rummage around in the freezer, then she comes back and plops down on the couch after he obligingly moves aside. "Dude, what are those things? Are those crabs?"

"Yeah. They eat the stuff that comes out of the underwater chimneys. They've been bleached white by the heat," he adds.

"They're crawling all over each other!" Steph looks both repulsed and intrigued. "They look like little skeleton creatures. I'll see those in my nightmares."

Tim rolls his eyes, throwing a couch pillow at her. "Then don't watch."

She throws it back, retorting, " _You_ don't watch."

"That makes no sense."

"Your face makes no sense." She shoves a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, eyes rapt on the TV, missing Tim's unimpressed expression. After a moment, he resumes eating, and they sit there in comfortable silence.

It's unexpected but. Not bad. Tim could get used to this. He's not going to, he tells himself, but he could.

 

* * *

 

That's what he said, and he meant it, but somehow he now finds himself staring blankly at an amethyst blouse that Stephanie is holding out with an expectant look on her face. "How did this happen?" Tim wonders rhetorically.

"I asked if you wanted to go clothes shopping with me and you said okay," she answers anyway.

"Why did I do that?"

"Well, it all started two days ago..."

 

_Cue flashback_

 

"Hey, Tim, do you wanna hang out again?" Steph asks.

"Hmm? Sure," Tim responds absently, flipping through a case file.

She waits until he reaches for his coffee cup without taking his eyes off the file, and then she says, "Great, how about next Sunday? We can go clothes shopping."

"That's fine."

"We can look for cute outfits together. I know a blouse that would look great on you."

"Sounds good."

"And then afterwards, we'll start a ukelele band and rake in the dough. I play a mean Wonderwall."

Tim sips his coffee. "Fascinating."

 

_End flashback_

 

"...and that's how it happened," Stephanie finishes.

"Seriously? That's cheating," Tim protests. "I wasn't even listening to you!" There's a pause while they stare at each other for a moment, then he admits, "Yeah, okay, I probably deserve this."

She snorts. "Probably?"

He rolls his eyes. "Fine, definitely."

"C'mon, it's not that bad, is it? I mean, if you really don't wanna do this..."

"It's not...I just...Last time I wore clothes like these, it was for undercover work."

Steph raises an eyebrow. "So, last week was undercover work, was it?"

Tim almost flinches. Neither of them had mentioned what Steph had seen until now, and for once he's not prepared. "That--"

"Tim, it's okay. It's nothing shameful. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just thought..." She lowers the blouse, frowning down at it. "I wanted to spend time with you outside of, you know, night work. I thought this would be something we'd both enjoy, but since it's not, I'll just put this back and we can hang out at the food court or something."

It's not that Tim doesn't want to do this. That's kind of the point, is that he _would_ enjoy this, and he doesn't know what to do with that. Or he didn't. Now, though...Stephanie is willing to back out of her plans to make him happy, and it's not like this is as dangerous as, say, fighting an army of ninjas, or Bane, or Deathstroke. Those are all things he's done, however, and he's still alive. He can do this, too. He _wants_ to.

"Thanks, Steph, but...I could use some more clothes." Tim reaches out to touch the blouse, rubbing the purple fabric between his fingers. "Isn't this more your color, though?"

Steph tilts her head, considering. "It is, isn't it?"

"You go try it on. I'll look for something in my style." He starts searching through the racks of tops, pausing at a particular one.

"Ooh, nice. Booster Gold V-neck. Try it," she urges.

"...Right..." he mutters, eyeing it dubiously. "How about _you_ try it."

"Done." Steph plucks it from his grasp. She saunters away and while he stares after her.

He wonders if she'll actually buy it. He wouldn't put it past her. Possibly he'll regret coming here.

Somehow, however, he doesn't think he will.  
  


* * *

 

 

Tim stares at the bags full of clothes that are sitting on his bed. "I think I got too many."

"No such thing, my man," Steph responds. She's still wearing the Booster Gold shirt. He's grinning and giving a thumbs up, teeth sparkling with white glitter. Booster might have commissioned that shirt just to give away, he's done much more shameless marketing before. And Steph is wearing it unironically. Why does he hang out with her, again?

"Wanna get all dressed up so we can sit on the couch and feel pretty while we stuff our faces with food?" she asks cheerfully. "We could watch another documentary, you nerd."

Well...maybe this is why.

**Author's Note:**

> The documentary about underwater volcanoes and those heat-bleached crabs is a real thing I watched, an episode of Alien Deep I saw at a friend's house.


End file.
